1. Field of Invention
Finishing compounds for barrel and/or vibratory and/or gyratory and/or centrifugal surface finishing and/or conditioning of metallic components, e.g., parts or workpieces, particularly such compound which has corrosion-inhibiting properties and which is particularly well-adapted for use in the finishing of such components in the presence of an acidic burnishing compound; method of finishing, e.g., burnishing, therewith.
2. Prior Art
Innumerable compositions or "compounds" have been proposed previously for the purpose of assisting with the finishing of parts or workpieces by the employment of finishing media of various types, including the employment of case-hardened steel burnishing balls for the burnishing of steel and other ferrous and non-ferrous metal parts. Such compositions or "compounds" have had innumerable formulations and a wide variety of components. For the finishing of ferrous or non-ferrous metal parts, particularly the burnishing thereof with case-hardened steel or other steel burnishing balls, employment of a so-called "burnishing compound" has become standard in the art. Such burnishing compositions or "compounds" are either of a basic or an acidic nature and, regardless of their nature, it has become standard practice of the art to include in the burnishing compound a so-called inhibitor "package," including one or more components which are present for purposes of inhibiting rust when ferrous or non-ferrous metals are being finished and, of course, to inhibit rust in any burnishing process wherein case-hardened or other steel balls are employed. Some indication of the state of the art is provided by the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,051, issued Nov. 25, 1980, the disclosure of which patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Regardless of the type of burnishing compound involved, or the type of inhibitor "package" included, it is a constant effort of the art to attain greater efficiency and to reduce discoloration and rusting of parts being finished as well as the burnishing balls employed in the process. The art has greatly advanced over the past several decades, but improvements in efficiency with resulting improvements in economy are always of greatest interest, and the present invention provides a striking improvement in this art, whereby discoloration and rusting of both metallic parts being finished and burnishing balls employed in the burnishing process are greatly reduced, and which is totally unpredictable due to the fact that the inhibitor package, hereinafter sometimes referred to as "Component X," is recommended for employment in basic media and is expected to be of no effect in prevention of discoloration or rusting when present in an acidic medium, which is the type of burnishing medium involved according to the present invention.